


but thy eternal summer shall not fade

by orphan_account



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-05
Updated: 2011-06-05
Packaged: 2017-10-20 03:41:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/208384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyler meets up with Caroline after a decade apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	but thy eternal summer shall not fade

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. Originally written for a comment fic prompt.

He meets her in a swanky lounge in the city she loves so much, a place that serves pretentious cocktails to suit-wearing businessman and their trophy wives. Tyler feels out of place as soon as he walks through the door. Even though he’s dressed for the occasion, he’s sure everyone can smell “small town” and “family man” on him.

Caroline is sitting at the glass and chrome bar, swirling her fancy drink around in the glass. She looks the same as the last time he saw her a decade ago. He steps toward her and she turns, smiling as she sees him, and the old familiar rush of her presence almost knocks Tyler off his feet.

“You came,” she says, as if there were ever any doubt that he would show. Tyler opens his mouth to say, “Of course,” but before he can speak her arms are around him and he is enveloped in the cold comforting scent of her.

“Caroline,” he whispers into her hair, “I’ve missed you.”

She pulls away and he almost thinks there are tears glistening in her eyes. “Let’s get you a drink,” she says, as if alcohol is all they need to get them through this night intact.

Tyler is halfway though his bottle of disgusting microbrew before she asks, “How are the pups?”

“My children are wonderful,” he replies, fighting a grin.

“And Elena?” she looks away quickly as she asks it.

“She’s good, too.” And it’s true. Tyler and Elena are happy together, still in love with each other and their family. If he sometimes thinks of Caroline and she of Stefan or Damon, they never acknowledge it to each other. “How’s Stefan?”

“He’s not eating people indiscriminately anymore. At least that’s a start.”

Tyler doesn’t know where to go with that, what he can say that won’t hurt her or bring them back to the conflicts of the past. Instead he sips his beer and as the silence grows between him he wishes, for the first time, that he _hadn’t_ come.

Caroline reaches out, touches his hair wonderingly. It’s longer now and…

“You’ve got gray hair,” she says and Tyler grimaces. As if he didn’t know. He has grown old, middle aged and gray and thickened around the belly and she hasn’t changed. She will never change. Caroline will stay forever yellow and young, shining in her eternal summer.

He leaves after one drink. He never asks why she called him and she never volunteers the information. On the drive home, Tyler finds himself crying so hard he has to pull over. He sobs like a child, grieving like he hasn’t done since the first time she left. Then he pulls himself together and drives back to Mystic Falls and the life he shares with Elena.


End file.
